vacation via instagram

Since I instagrammed most of our trip I thought I would just share on the blog the same way.  If you follow me on IG you have seen some of these but not all.  Did you know that you can put your phone on airplane mode, instagram your pic and it will fail but it saves to your camera roll?  That way you don't have to blow up everyone's feed but you can still get the pics and blow up your blog with vacation pics!  Hello awesome trick!  

So here is our road trip to New Orleans...with a bit of commentary.  :)

Off we go!  We took my mother in law for the help and so we could go on a date.

We broke the trip up into 2 days.  We stayed in Vicksburg one night...all in the same room.  Lonnie and Bob snored while I tried (and failed) to get Blakely to go to sleep.  

stretching our legs

We made it.  Mommy got wine for lunch for her awesome driving skills and for rolling on 3 hours of sleep.  

Escalators and elevators.  All you need to entertain an 18 month old

Oh.  And steps.  She would have been happy to play in this spot of the hotel all day.  

Morning sunshine!

We taught her how to drink out of a bottle.  So she wanted to do that all the time.  

Playing with our ocean animals before heading to the aquarium.  

She was so sleepy the whole time but she did enjoy seeing the ISH!  (fish)

NanaBob gives B her phone way too easily.  She knows how to get to her games on there.  Mama is not a fan of this but she only does it with my mother in law's phone so I guess it is ok.....

The only picture of all three of us.  In Jackson Square.  

She did a lot of riding on Daddy's shoulders.  

Eating dinner on the gross hotel ottoman.  

Date....

Such a sleepy head in the morning while we were there.  

We had brunch at Bren.nan's.  They gave her complimentary strawberries and cream.  LOVED.  

My brunch..yum!

We ordered bananas foster.  It was awesome.  Blakely ate most of it though.  

Then this happened.  B started running a fever.  I am sure it was from eating dinner off the yucky ottoman...  

She didn't feel bad and the fever only last a few hours.  She was feeling fine to walk to dinner.  

She absolutely devoured the fried crawfish.  I think she ate our whole appetizer...

Her favorite though was breakfast in bed everyday.  Mine too!

We took her to the Children's Museum.  She had a great time.  This was when she saw Lonnie walk in (he met us there).

hard hat area...

This was in the little diner at the museum.  She was kinda ticked those weren't real strawberries.  

She loved crawling around on everything.  She also played well with others.  YAY!

liquid lunch

B got to Fa.ce.Time with my mom one night.  Gran Di was so happy to see her and B just kept blowing her kisses!  Adorbs.

Our second date in a week!

And then we came home.  It was a fun time and I am glad that we went.  Lonnie had meetings every day so he just hung out with us when he could.  I would not actually call this a vacation for me because I didn't get to sleep in one time.  We are headed to Florida in a few weeks with my family and you better believe I am sleeping in.  I am going to assign each person a day to get up with B.  That's right...Mama plans on sleeping in every day!  Happy Wednesday!  

18 months old!

On April 13th, Blakely Ann turned 18 months old!  

Here are a few things about Blakely this month.  

She got her 16th tooth.  It was her bottom left canine.  Now we just wait for the 2nd year molars.  I am thankful that she has not been a bad teether at all.  I have always heard horror stories about teething so I know that I got lucky with this.  

I know I have mentioned this before but Blakely started gymnastics once a week.  She gets better every time we go.  For the first five minutes they sit in a circle and "warm up" with some songs.  Blakely never wants to do this.  She just wants to run and jump on everything of course!  Her favorite is jumping on the trampoline and walking on the balance beam.  She can even do kicks while on the beam.  Now that she knows how to jump she wants to do it on everything.  Couch, recliner, floor, Daddy's belly...  

Thanks for the great idea Bridget!

She likes to "clean".  I'll give her a wet paper towel or wash cloth and she carries it around and wipes off the windows, window sills or the coffee table.  

She learned how to go down steps by herself this month.  We have a 2 level house.  The main level is the 2nd floor and our bedrooms are on the bottom level.  We have a door at the top of the stairs that we keep closed all the time but I thought she needed to learn how to safely go down the steps in case someone ever left the door open.  It took her all of 1 minute to figure it out.  She sits down and then scoots to the edge and plops to the next step.  She can now walk up the steps like a big girl just hanging on to the rail.  She can actually go down them this way too but I make her hold me hand for now.

She can finally climb onto our furniture.  She has always been a climber but our furniture was just always a little too big for her to get on.  Not anymore.  Lonnie even found her standing in the middle of our coffee table the other day.  It is glass.  Not awesome. 

She has gotten so good about letting me put her hair in pig tails.  At first, it took a bunch of bribery for her to sit long enough.  Now she gets excited when I put her on the counter and get out her brush.  And speaking of hair she has started playing with my hair while falling asleep.  She gets to watch Mickey before bedtime so she curls up beside me in the recliner and says HUH! HUH!  That means hair.  I snuggle up with her and she twirls my hair while sucking on the back of her other hand and we watch Mickey like the every day.  Best.  

Since the weather has been cooperating we have spend a lot of time this month outside.  She loves playing outside.

I figured it was about time to teach her my basketball skillzzzz....

And playing on the deck with Daddy.  

This is one of my favorite pics ever.  I was inside and they were outside just talking.  She was listening to him so intently.  I love their bond.  

We even eat dinner on the deck as much as possible.  

We have a few geese in our area and Blakely can now spot them and yells GEE!  GEE!  We feed them occasionally and she likes that too.

She is obsessed with birds.  She will stand outside and look up and yell BUH! every time she sees a bird.  It is so cute to see how excited she gets when she spots one.  

She can say almost every letter but only recognizes a few.  We have been working more on letters lately since she has no interest in colors...everything is PUH PUH.  

She says bye bye to everything.  I think that is her favorite word this month.  Bye bye to all the cars that pass, to the dogs when they leave the room, and to me or Lonnie when we walk out of the room.  

Blakely has definitely started throwing some tantrums.  They mostly occur when we can't go outside.  The other day it was pouring rain and we were under a tornado warning.  She was hysterical yelling so I finally took her out for a minute in the rain just to show her WHY we couldn't be out there.  I think that helped.  She is testing her limits (or our limits) about numerous things.  She wants to stand up in her high chair.  No.  She wants to walk around while eating dinner.  No.  She wants to walk at the grocery store instead of ride.  No.  She wants to play with my phone constantly.  No.  I am learning why it is so important to be consistent.  Hard but important.  I really can't complain too much because she does really well most of the time when I tell her no and explain why she can't do something.  She is just all about repetition so sometimes we have to go over these things 20 times before she moves on.  It can be a bit draining!  

She is still very interested in the potty.  I have not been pushing it at all but I will take her if she asks to go.  She has pee peed a couple of times but no poop in her little potty.  I do believe she is learning more about it though.  It is obvious when she is pooping so I have started asking her if she is pooping.  She will say yes.  She loves to watch us flush her poop in the potty.  She says BYE BYE!  A few times throughout the day I will ask her if there is poop in her diaper.  She used to always say no because she hates being still for a diaper change but now she will say yes if there is.  Definite progress.  

I can't believe my baby is a year and a half old!  It was so fun to watch her coo and wiggle back in the day and now I am enjoying watching her run around constantly and mimic every word we say.  Truly amazing!  

Wordless Wednesday-Home Sweet Home

We just go home from a road trip to New Orleans. We had a great time but we are all very happy to be home!

Happiness

18 months ago today Lonnie and I got our miracle baby girl. We are so thankful every day to be her parents.

She is mostly thankful for ice cream (ashhhh beeeee in toddler) on half birthdays!!

We went to a birthday party...

...and Blakely thought it was for her.  Oops.  


I'm sort of kidding.  She did really well at the party.  I was a bit concerned when the first thing she did when we walked in the door was plop herself down in Jayda's (the birthday girl) Min.nie M.ouse chair.  But when it was time for Jayda to open presents Blakely got right out of the chair when I asked her too.  She kept giving her the side eye the whole time though.  I am just happy she didn't try to throw the poor child out of her own chair.

Although, at some point, I looked over and Jayda was on the floor and Blakely was in the chair again.  Not sure how that happened...

She was patient while the presents were opened.  If patient means waiting for Jayda to open the gifts and then taking them from her.  

I'll take that for you.  

Then this guy came out.  Yeah.  She loved it and *really* didn't want to let Jayda ride it.  She was sweet enough to show her how to push the buttons on it though.  

You know when you try to get your kid to leave the park or the pet store and they go into total freak out mode and you are sure that isn't possibly your child?  I was super concerned that was going to happen when I tried to take her off this toy when it was time to leave.  Have no fear.  I gave her a sucker to avoid the meltdown.  Bribery for the win.  

Love this girl to PIECES.  

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so much fun...

Today, I took Blakely to a local place that has a ton of bouncy houses and slides.  We have never been because I always imagined her getting plowed over by 5 year olds and being traumatized.  I happened to be driving by there this morning and they had just opened.  On a whim I pulled in.  

What a load of fun we had.  She was the only child there so we had the run of the place.  She was too little to climb up to the big slide so I went with her every time.  At first, I slid down with her but I got brave and let her go by herself once.  She was scared when she first got to the bottom but then a huge smiled crossed her face as she screamed MORE MORE MORE and waved for me to come down.  

Hurry up, Mom!

Then we checked out the bouncy house.  She liked this but she was almost too small to jump!  Since the floor of it is uneven she fell over 43,878 times and giggled every time.  We jumped together for a long time.  Really until Mommy started sweating...

They also have little bouncy obstacle courses.  She could do most of it by herself except the one part where you have to climb over a wall.  We went through that thing a good 20 times.  Let me tell you.  I was worn out.  I am just too long and lanky to be crawling under, over and through things made for 5 year olds.  No need to go to the gym today!

We had such a blast!  This girl is at such a fun stage right now.  She is so silly and has quite the funny personality.  I love her to pieces.  And you know what?  She loves me too.

Wordless Wednesday-Superhero Edition

Daddy showed her how to turn her shirt into a cape.  Pure toddler joy followed.  

Daddy would tie the cape and then she would throw her arms in the air and run all over the deck.  

Only stopping to watch a boat go by.  

These are the days....